Leasing Procedures
The Letter of Intent from tenant to express the interest to lease the office from Landlord. The LOI need to in writing together with tenant company business ACRA. Normally the LOI indicate the condition / requirement from tenant to lease the office such as Offer Price, Rent Free Period, Commencement Date and etc. Subsequent counter offer will through the negotiation. This LOI is always ‘Subject to Contract' and thus non-binding until the landlord issues a formal offer for acceptance.
The Letter Of Offer will be issued once once all the principle terms are agree by both parties. Before issue the original LOO, we will request a TA specimen from landlord for tenant’s legal consultant to go through. Most of the major landlords in Singapore have their standard lease documentation which the major changes are unlikely. Therefore we always recommend all the tenants to use the local lawyer who familiar with landlord and tenant legislation in Singapore. Some other cases tenant will be given 1 month to finalize the drafting of the TA.
All these are by tenant and need to prepare when return the LOO after sign with company stamp mark on the document. This is consider legal biding. So it is important for the tenant agree with all the principle term stated in TA or at least satisfied there are no major obstacles in the lease before signing the Letter of Offer. Normally actual TA will be sign after 1 month or before the possession date.
We will advise tenant’s interior design / contractor submit the necessary document for approval to do the renovation. This is to ensure The renovation can be completed on time within the rent free period. We also highly recommend that the tenant’s interior designer/contractor be present at the time of handing over to take an accurate record of the condition of the premise at that time and to highlight repairs that the landlord should be responsible for.
Leasing Terminology & Common Terms
Most of the office buildings with central air-con system, operates during office hours.
- Weekdays: 8am to 6pm
- Weekends: 8am to 1pm
After office hours usage of air-con can be arranged by giving the advance notice. The estimated cost would be $40 to $80 per hour. Tenant also can install the split air con or tape into chilled water depend on the building system. This is subject to management approval.
Tenant season car park allocated base on the total floor leased. The ratio normally is 1 lot per 2000 sf. Cost average will be $200 to $400 depend on the building or location. Additional lot is subject to availability and on monthly or quarterly basis.
Office lease term normally 3 years but 2 years possible be accepted. > 3 years now difficult to negotiate because most landlord not keen in this rising market. We still can see some bigger tenant manage to sign up to 5 years lease due to bigger spaces.
This is the fees to prepare the documentation and required to pay by tenant. The fees varies from landlord to landlord.
Standard lease renewal is 1 to 3 years but subject to rate mutual agree.
All tenant required to return the unit in bare and original condition at the end of the lease. This normally take 2 to 3 weeks so tenant must start to plan before last month of the lease.
This is given to the tenant for renovation purpose on the premises. The duration is depend on the size of premises and normally 1 month, 2 to 3 months is possible for the bigger spaces. This will normally given outside of the lease term.
This charge averagely between $0.80 to $1.20 psf and include in gross rental. The exact figure will be specified in the lease but can change during the lease term. Service charge covers the maintenance common area and air conditioning of the offices during normal office hours.
Tenant is responsible on the stamp duty fees payable for the lease documentation.
Tenant required to open it own electrical account and responsible for the connection charges if needed. If the property building is not a central air con system, tenant have to pay the air con usage charge.